Weymouth says goodbye to fallen officer

Monday

Aug 31, 2009 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2009 at 1:16 PM

One by one, the 96 officers of the Weymouth Police Department took off their white dress gloves and placed them on the casket of police officer Michael Davey. Davey, who five years ago fulfilled his lifelong dream of following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a police officer, was laid to rest Saturday in Fairmount Cemetery following a funeral Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church.

Allison Manning

Officer Davey at the sendoff for his National Guard unit before it left for Iraq in 2003.

One by one, the 96 officers of the Weymouth Police Department took off their white dress gloves and placed them on the casket of police officer Michael Davey.

Davey, who five years ago fulfilled his lifelong dream of following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a police officer, was laid to rest Saturday in Fairmount Cemetery following a funeral Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church.

In a eulogy for his 34-year-old brother, Mark Davey called him “one of the richest people I’ll ever know.”

“Michael had achieved something at a young age that most people need much longer to accomplish: utter and complete happiness,” Mark Davey said. “What more could he ask for? He had a wife that adored him, kids that cherished him, family and friends who loved him, a house right in the backyard of his mom and dad, service that he was proud of and a job that he had dreamed of.”

Davey, a father of three, served 16 months in Iraq with the Army National Guard’s 1058th Transportation Company out of Hingham.

“His love accomplished all of this,” Mark Davey said. “And our love for him will always cherish and remember all he did.”

Michael Davey was killed last Monday while directing traffic. He was pinned between two trucks and died a short time later. He was the first police officer killed while on duty in Weymouth in nearly a century.

At the burial at Fairmount Cemetery, Davey’s wife, Kathleen, sat between her two sons, James, 14, and Joseph, 6. The couple’s daughter, Brianna, 9, wore a man’s jacket over her white dress as she stood behind her mother.

Army Reservists handed the American flag that covered Davey’s coffin to his wife and his mother, Deborah. Kathleen Davey clutched the flag to her chest.

Davey’s father, Ernest, a police officer in Weymouth for more than 30 years, sobbed and leaned into his wife, touching her head with his.

Davey inherited his father’s badge number, 20, upon his graduation from the police academy. His family wore silver pins with the number 20 on them during the funeral services.

Along the drive from the church to Fairmount Cemetery, Weymouth residents holding flags stood in the pouring rain with hands over their hearts. Dozens of police cruisers with their lights flashing, each bearing the name of a different town, were parked along the route.

The Rev. Eugene Sullivan, pastor of St. Francis Xavier, spoke about the unfairness of losing Davey so young.

“We trust that all of his love and goodness can be stored in our memory, so he can always be with us,” the Rev. Sullivan said. “Don’t spend time focused on the tragic details of what we don’t know.”

Mark Davey talked about growing up with his older brother, spending summers on Cape Cod and getting into mischief at their Weymouth home.

“Mike, your life was cut too short,” Mark Davey said through tears. “Don’t worry about your wife and children. They’ll always be taken care of.”